The One True God
God Makes Himself Known, Part 3 (Who deserves worship)
Check out:
God Demonstrates His Power: Part 1 (Egypt)
God Defends His Honor: Part 2 (Phillistines)
Many people today talk as if there are many ways to God or that all religions really worship the same god. This is not true. It is a lie from Satan. There is only one true God. There is only one way to God—through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.
Through this event in history, the God of the Bible made Himself known as the one true God, the God who answered with fire in an unfathomable way.
Elijah vs Baal
It isn’t just foreign people that need to know the power of God; it is also God’s own people, Israel.
Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him. It came about, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he married Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went to serve Baal and worshiped him. So he erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal which he built in Samaria. Ahab also made the Asherah. Thus Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel than all the kings of Israel who were before him. (1 Kings 16:30-33) {emphasis mine}
Ahab and his foreign wife, Jezebel, “did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel than all the kings of Israel who were before him.” They worshipped multiple false Gods and persecuted the believers in the one true God. Therefore God used Elijah to make clear who was really God.
Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, surely there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.” (1 Kings 17:1)
God’s first action was to stop the rain and cause a severe drought throughout the land. God provided for the needs of His servant and prophet Elijah. First He used Ravens to feed him. Then He used a Sidonian widow to provide for him. God also did a miracle to bring the Sidonian widow’s son back to life, but God had only begun to teach Ahab and the Israelites who the one, true God is.
When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is this you, you troubler of Israel?” He said, “I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father’s house have, because you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and you have followed the Baals. Now then send and gather to me all Israel at Mount Carmel, together with 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of the Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.” (1 Kings 18:17-19) {emphasis mine}
Ahab accused Elijah of being the troubler of Israel when, in fact, it was Ahab who was the troubler because he was the one leading Israel astray. Do we see this today? We constantly see the people, whose sins cause trouble, accusing others of the very sin that they are guilty of committing.
God was going to prove who was the real, true God. He was going to pit His single prophet, Elijah, against all 450 of the prophets of Baal.
Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people did not answer him a word. (1 Kings 18:21) {emphasis mine}
Elijah challenged the people to follow their God (the one, true God), but they stayed silent and wouldn’t stand up for the truth. How often today do we see believers who are afraid to speak up for the truth? They would rather please the people around them than their creator God. Our sinful, human nature never changes.
Then Elijah said to the people, “I alone am left a prophet of the Lord, but Baal’s prophets are 450 men. Now let them give us two oxen; and let them choose one ox for themselves and cut it up, and place it on the wood, but put no fire under it; and I will prepare the other ox and lay it on the wood, and I will not put a fire under it. Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord, and the God who answers by fire, He is God.” And all the people said, “That is a good idea.” (1 Kings 18:21) {emphasis mine}
I’m sure everyone, especially the prophets of Baal, were shocked when they were called upon to offer a sacrifice, but they had to rely on their god to provide the fire. They couldn’t light a fire themselves as they had always done. They all had to wait to see which god, if any, was powerful enough to create fire out of nothing, with no help from man.
Being dramatic, Elijah and God, had the prophets of Baal go first. These prophets of the false god, Baal, picked their ox and their altar and started chanting.
Then they took the ox which was given them and they prepared it and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon saying, “O Baal, answer us.” But there was no voice and no one answered. And they leaped about the altar which they made. It came about at noon, that Elijah mocked them and said, “Call out with a loud voice, for he is a god; either he is occupied or gone aside, or is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and needs to be awakened.” So they cried with a loud voice and cut themselves according to their custom with swords and lances until the blood gushed out on them. When midday was past, they raved until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice; but there was no voice, no one answered, and no one paid attention. (1 Kings 18:26-29) {emphasis mine}
This was a pathetic attempt to get a man-made idol to act. The prophets chanted; they cut themselves; they raved, “but there was no voice, no one answered, and no one paid attention.” There was nothing these people could do to make their false god do anything. With blood, sweat, and tears, they failed.
I’ll admit I so enjoy Elijah’s mocking, “Call out with a loud voice, for he is a god; either he is occupied or gone aside, or is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and needs to be awakened.” A god that needs rest isn’t much of a god and Elijah makes his point clear to the prophets, but even more to the people watching and waiting for a response.
By the end of the day, it says “and no one paid attention.” Which god to worship was everything, but back then, just as today, people lose interest quickly and don’t put the time and effort into important things like they should.
Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me.” So all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of the Lord which had been torn down. Elijah took twelve stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, “Israel shall be your name.” So with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord, and he made a trench around the altar, large enough to hold two measures of seed. Then he arranged the wood and cut the ox in pieces and laid it on the wood. And he said, “Fill four pitchers with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood.” And he said, “Do it a second time,” and they did it a second time. And he said, “Do it a third time,” and they did it a third time. The water flowed around the altar and he also filled the trench with water. (1 Kings 18:26-29) {emphasis mine}
When Elijah’s turn to call on God came, he was different. He called the people to come and pay attention. He rebuilt the altar of the Lord using 12 uncut stones for the 12 tribes of Israel as had been prescribed by God. Then, in order to make sure nobody could possibly believe anyone, except God, had brought fire, He poured four pitchers of water on the altar three times so the altar, the wood, and the sacrifice were sopping wet. It is unlikely any person could start a fire until this mess dried out, but a person didn’t need to start the fire. The omnipotent, creator God was going to bring fire and nothing could stop Him. When God acts, He acts in a big way.
At the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet came near and said, “O Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, today let it be known that You are God in Israel and that I am Your servant and I have done all these things at Your word. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that You, O Lord, are God, and that You have turned their heart back again.” Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. (1 Kings 18:36-38) {emphasis mine}
Elijah prayed that God would let the people know that there is a true God in Israel. Then “the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.” The prophets of Baal had prayed, cried out, and cut themselves all day long with no hint of a response, but when Elijah gave a simple prayer asking God to reveal Himself fire instantly came down from heaven. It didn’t just light a fire; it didn’t just burn the offering; but the fire consumed the wood, offering, stones, dust, and water. God didn’t leave the option to not believe. He made His power immediately obvious to everyone in attendance.
When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, “The Lord, He is God; the Lord, He is God.” (1 Kings 18:36-38)
The people, who had been silent and not said a word, now fell on their faces and repeated, “The Lord, He is God; the Lord, He is God!” They realized their sinfulness and they realized God’s awesomeness, so they worshipped — real worship. There was no more nonchalance. There was no more waffling between gods. They knew who was God and they fell down in worship.
God was merciful to His people and displayed such power that they could do nothing except worship Him. For those who had led them astray, the prophets of Baal, there was no mercy and they were put to death.
Shortly after, Elijah prayed, and it rained a torrential rain that watered the parched land.
God once again led his chosen people back to Him. Unfortunately, they never stayed faithful. Even when one generation was mostly faithful, within a generation or two, they were back to worshipping false gods.
It might make you wonder why an all-knowing God would pick a people who were so consistently unfaithful. I think it was to show His own faithfulness. He was showing the world that His word is true.
If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself. (2 Timothy 2:13)
Trust Jesus.
your sister in Christ,
Christy
Bible verses are NASB (New American Standard Bible) 1995 edition unless otherwise stated
If you don’t want to miss a post, please consider subscribing, so you know when new posts are published.
If you have any questions or comments, I’d love to hear from you. I will try to reply to your questions and comments as quickly as possible. I’m sure life will sometimes get in the way, but know that your input is valuable to me. Some responses may be direct to you. I may address some with a blog post.
Join Christy’s subscriber chat